Product life cycle management (or PLCM) is the succession of strategies used by business management as a product goes through

its life cycle. The conditions in which a product is sold (advertising, saturation) changes over time and must be managed as it moves through its succession of stages. Product life cycle (PLC) Like human beings, products also have a life-cycle. From birth to death, human beings pass through various stages e.g. birth, growth, maturity, decline and death. A similar life-cycle is seen in the case of products. The product life cycle goes through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills, tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. To say that a product has a life cycle is to assert three things: Products have a limited life, Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and problems to the seller, Products require different marketing, financing, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource strategies in each life cycle stage. The four main stages of a product's life cycle and the accompanying characteristics are: Stage Characteristics

1. 2. 1. Market introduction stage 3. 4. 5. 6. 2. Growth stage 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

costs are very high slow sales volumes to start little or no competition demand has to be created customers have to be prompted to try the product makes no money at this stage costs reduced due to economies of scale sales volume increases significantly profitability begins to rise public awareness increases competition begins to increase with a few new players in establishing market

6.

increased competition leads to price decreases

1. costs are lowered as a result of production volumes increasing and experience

curve effects 2. 3. Maturity stage 3. 4. 5. sales volume peaks and market saturation is reached increase in competitors entering the market prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of competing products brand differentiation and feature diversification is emphasized to maintain or increase market share 6. 1. 4. Saturation and decline stage 2. 3. 4. Industrial profits go down costs become counter-optimal sales volume decline or stabilize prices, profitability diminish profit becomes more a challenge of production/distribution efficiency than increased sales

Strategies for the differing stages of the Product Life Cycle. Introduction.
The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product is promoted to create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a skimming price strategy is employed. Limited numbers of product are available in few channels of distribution.

Growth.
Competitors are attracted into the market with very similar offerings. Products become more profitable and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other over. Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share tends to stabilise.

Maturity.
Those products that survive the earlier stages tend to spend longest in this phase. Sales grow at a decreasing rate and then stabilise. Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are key to this. Price wars and intense competition occur. At this point the market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the market due to poor margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of media.

Decline.

At this point there is a downturn in the market. For example more innovative products are introduced or consumer tastes have changed. There is intense price-cutting and many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing spend and cost cutting.

Problems with Product Life Cycle.

Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle is defined as the period that starts with the initial product design (research and development) and ends with the withdrawal of the product from the marketplace. It is characterized by specific stages, including research, development, introduction, maturity, decline, and obsolescence. Each stage is often linked with changes in the flows of raw materials, parts and distribution to markets. Conventionally, four main stages compose a product's life cycle:

Types of strategies
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Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the individual business. However there are a number of ways of categorizing some generic strategies. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented below:

Strategies based on market dominance - In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies: Leader Challenger Follower Nicher

Porter generic strategies - strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the market penetration while strategic strength refers to the firms sustainable competitive advantage. The generic strategy framework (porter 1984) comprises two alternatives each with two alternative scopes. These are Differentiation and low-cost leadership each with a dimension of Focus-broad or narrow.

Product differentiation (broad)

Cost leadership (broad) Market segmentation (narrow)

Innovation strategies - This deals with the firm's rate of the new product development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types:

Pioneers

Close followers Late followers

Growth strategies - In this scheme we ask the question, How should the firm grow?. There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the most common gives four answers:

Horizontal integration Vertical integration Diversification

Intensification A more detailed scheme uses the categories[10]: Prospector Analyzer Defender Reactor

Marketing warfare strategies - This scheme draws parallels between marketing strategies and military strategies.

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The types of marketing strategies available to you as a business owner today are unlimited. Still, marketing itself is hardly a new concept - people and businesses have been engaged in marketing for centuries.

But with the passing of time, the best marketers recognize and accept the fact that marketing is as much psychology as it is technique. Combining these two elements effectively can yield your business fantastic marketing results. Generally speaking, there are three broad types of marketing strategies: 1. Offline (or traditional forms of) marketing 2. Online marketing (with the arrival and development of the internet)

3. Word-of-Mouth marketing (which is the oldest and arguably the most effective still today)
Let's take a look at each...

Offline Marketing
The term offline market is a term that acknowledges the fact that the Internet has radically altered the way the world relates and communicates. Offline marketing refers to those types of marketing strategies which have long been accepted because of their proven and consistent results. Offline marketing can be split into three categories: Print - like newspapers, magazines, yellow pages, ads, flyers, coupons, etc. Television and radio Word of mouth (which is important enough to talk about separately) Other examples of offline marketing include billboards, posters, newspapers and mailers. Also common are the more direct methods of press releases and conferences, and seminars. Product samples and demos are yet another way to promote a brand. Offline marketing can be cheap or expensive, but if done correctly, is still highly effective. In fact, despite the introduction of the internet as a powerful marketing tool, offline marketing still prevails as the main form of advertising for many large organizations. In many ways, offline marketing can target audiences based on behaviors and usage. For example, TV advertising can target channels watched, times of day or even certain days in a month. Radio ads can be targeted similarly. Newspapers also have the ability to target certain types of readers by selecting a certain newspaper or even a section of a newspaper based on who reads it. Flyers and mailers can be distributed by postal areas.

Online Marketing
The Internet has revolutionized the way we work, live and also spend money! Today, the Internet is a goldmine for businesses because of the ability to reach and service customers globally while reducing operating costs significantly. Online marketing offers businesses opportunities which would be insanely expensive in the offline world - at a fraction of the cost. Imagine wanting to broadcast an advertisement globally on TV for a new product - how much would that cost you? With the Internet, you can accomplish that same goal at a relatively low cost. Still, much of what is done online in terms of marketing and sales mimics the offline world of marketing. Online, however, you have the ability to target your audience more finely - and more quickly. There are several types of marketing strategies online. Examples include...

Performance marketing - marketing by ad placement based on search engine queries, where the advertiser only pays for advertising when someone clicks on the ad. Google has become the

leader in performance/search marketing - because of its powerful search engine and data resources.

Banner marketing - once the main form of online marketing during the tech bubble, has lost favor to performance marketing. The once high cost of banner placements did not necessarily translate into sales conversions. Banners are now for the most part, considered as supplemental advertising, except when the banner is itself a form of contextual or performance marketing. Email marketing and press releases - considered by many today to be the "king" of marketing online. You can commonly hear marketers say stuff like "the money is in the list" when referring to email marketing. Beware though that there are acceptable and unacceptable forms of email marketing. Be careful not to become a SPAM artist! Social Networking and Social Bookmarking - This type of marketing has quickly gained favor with the explosion of social networks like MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. They are such powerful promotional tools that not only businesses are tapping into them - so are politicians, musicians and celebrities. It's phenomenal how quickly you can get the word out about something and have it travel the world within minutes. Affiliate Marketing - a bit slower to develop than other types of marketing strategies online, affiliate marketing has now become a multi-billion dollar industry. The concept of affiliate marketing is to let website owners promote your products or services and give them a commission for every sale or lead they generate for you. It's a very efficient form of marketing because the cost to set up and implement is relatively low, and you let the "real" experts promote your brand for you - on a performance basis.

Word of Mouth Marketing

By far the most powerful form of marketing is and will always be word of mouth. People trust their friends and family and other users more than they trust banners or ads. The power of word of mouth should not be underestimated. Word of mouth advertising transcends beyond all other forms of marketing because it can fit into any one of them. Take for example, the logo on a can of Coke. Someone drinks a Coke and leaves the can on the table. That in itself is powerful marketing. Even though there technically was no word of mouth, the mere fact someone drank a Coke and left the can behind for someone else to see it ... get my drift? Same thing with online marketing strategies like affiliate marketing - which is essentially word of mouth. Someone recommends a product or service on their website and the word gets out. Multilevel Marketing (MLM) is entirely based on word of mouth advertising - the idea that one user introduces other users to try and use a product, in the hopes of converting some of those users into promoters as well - is a powerful one.

Marketing isn't just about creating awareness...

...it's also about creating loyalty. By creating a consistent presence in the mind of target users, businesses also create a sense of permanence and thus encourage users to become loyal to a brand. Successful businesses don't just market to introduce new products or capture new users. They also market after-sales to upgrade or up-sell existing users. Some types of marketing strategies are known as loss-leaders. This basically means he marketing efforts are done at a loss rather than profit - in order to first build up awareness and build up a user base. Once you have that user base, you can up-sell them to more expensive products or full-scale services.

For example, you may have received a free one month subscription for a newspaper. Once you've become used to getting and reading the paper, you may then sign up for a one year paid subscription. Similarly, you might have downloaded a trial version of software, which after the trial period, you didn't want to stop using. The free trial period was enough of an offer to get you on board as a paid user. If conducted properly, loss leader marketing can become profitable in the longer term and should be considered as one of the types of marketing strategies if it suits your product or service. Depending on your business model and business plan - you will want to explore which of these types of marketing strategies best fit into your sales and marketing plan.